Hazte Oír’s complaint targets guidance on nationality for descendants of exiles under the 'ley de nietos'. The judge has postponed a decision on requested testimony until the association posts €1,000 in security.
The case concerns a 2022 instruction telling Spanish consulates how to assess descendants of exiles seeking nationality under the Ley de Memoria Democrática. On 21 October 2026, Madrid’s Investigating Court No. 35 accepted Hazte Oír’s complaint against Sofía Puente, who signed the instruction, for examination. Judge Inmaculada Lova Ruiz said the alleged facts could point to possible administrative prevarication, a suspected offence involving an unlawful administrative decision. The ruling, reported by Antena 3, lets judicial scrutiny proceed; it does not establish Puente’s guilt or automatically authorize every investigative measure sought by the complainant. The decision went against the Madrid prosecutor’s request to reject the case.
The instruction was signed on 25 October 2022, when Puente was director general of Legal Security and Public Faith at Spain’s Ministry of Justice. It implemented Additional Provision Eight of the Democratic Memory Law, which created a route to Spanish nationality for certain descendants of Spaniards affected by exile. The guidance covered different applicant categories, including descendants of Spaniards by origin and descendants of people who left Spain during the Civil War and the subsequent dictatorship.
Under the instruction, the status of exile was presumed for Spaniards who left the country between 18 July 1936 and 31 December 1955. Applicants could therefore submit evidence that a relative had left Spain during that period without separately proving the individual reasons for the departure. Hazte Oír argues that this interpretation extended eligibility to descendants of economic migrants and allowed nationality to be obtained without proving exile in cases where the law required it. The organization’s complaint challenges whether Puente had authority to set that practical interpretation of the statutory requirement.
Puente and the prosecution argued that another court had already examined and archived the matter after an earlier complaint in 2022. The prosecution invoked the principle of cosa juzgada, or a matter already adjudicated, as grounds to reject the new complaint. Lova Ruiz did not dismiss it at this stage and accepted the allegations for examination. The judge has not ordered Puente’s questioning or testimony from the justice and foreign affairs ministers.
Hazte Oír has requested that Puente be questioned as an investigated person and that Justice Minister Félix Bolaños and Foreign Affairs Minister José Manuel Albares give testimony. It has also asked the court to obtain documents used to prepare the instruction and internal communications, including circulars sent to Spanish consulates. The judge will consider the requested measures after Hazte Oír deposits €1,000 in security and the prosecution’s position is heard. These remain requests by the complainant, not investigative steps already ordered by the court.
The instruction’s validity is also under examination at the Supreme Court, where the right to vote of people who obtained nationality under its interpretation has been questioned. Separately, Spain’s Constitutional Court rejected an appeal by the Ombudsman concerning restrictions affecting voters registered abroad in the CERA consular electoral roll; the ruling was reported as having been approved by 10 votes to two. That electoral dispute is separate from the criminal complaint against Puente.
